March 23, 2007

Elizabeth Edwards

I think over the past two or three hours I've read just about everything that's been written today about Elizabeth Edwards and her cancer recurrence. Hitting a little close to home given my mom's situation -- quick update on my mom I guess: she finished chemotherapy a couple of weeks ago, started radiation this week, tests last week were all good, mammogram showed nothing, so it's all okay for her right now, and hopefully the radiation will knock out any cancer that's lurking and she'll be in the big piece of the pie chart regarding her long-term prognosis and not the little slice of the pie chart that isn't as good. My mom, for obvious reasons, is pretty freaked out by the Elizabeth Edwards stuff, but I found some articles that talked about Edwards's original cancer diagnosis being a fair bit more advanced than my mom's was, and so that made her feel slightly less freaked out about her own situation I suppose.

What an awful situation for Elizabeth Edwards and John Edwards and their kids. I mean, I've read a bunch of articles tonight about metastatic breast cancer and how there are the outliers who are able to live 5, 10, 20 years and keep it under control and have a good quality of life -- but how does anyone really live with that underlying fear and knowledge that there's something inside of you that's going to almost certainly kill you. I guess the answer is you just do your best, because what else can you do, and like anything else you're faced with, eventually you adjust to it and are able to cope, and live as much as you can. I just can't imagine how someone could run a presidential campaign, take care of his kids, worry about his wife, and have enough mental energy to get through the day. But it's not like there are better options, I guess. Doing nothing, and just sitting at home and dwelling on the fear, certainly doesn't sound like a better choice. Living each day paralyzed to actually live... I don't know. Frankly I don't know how they got through their press conference smiling instead of crying. I've been blessed to live a pretty easy life so far. I can't complain much about the hand I've been dealt. But, man, the strength a whole lot of people, in all sorts of bad situations, are forced to summon just to get through each day, the number of people for whom life just doesn't seem like very much fun feels frighteningly high.

4 Comments

I'm so happy to hear your mother is doing well. I wonder about her from time to time. Thank you for the update.

You only think you know that Elizabeth Edwards is facing an uncertain future due to her cancer diagnosis. She could suffer some other fate entirely. We all face her choice. We are just blissfully unaware of it.

Today anyone one of us could accidentally perish. Hiding in your room is not a good solution. Living your life fully is truly the best and courageous action.

Something about the Edwards interview on TV recently didn't sit well with me. There was a point where he seemed to be using his current situation for political gain, although he tried hard to disguise his intentions.

He started off by saying that people shouldn't vote for him because his wife has cancer, but they should consider each candidate's personal quality (referring to his strength throughout all this) when making their decision on who to vote for.

I don't know--it just seemed off-putting, even though perhaps it wasn't

Elizabeth is NOT MORE DOOMED today, or this week, or this decade than she was the year before.

As she kept saying over and over in the Couric interview, she always knew she was going to die someday. But now, she knows what'll probably kill her.

The only difference between her and us is that she has incentive to enjoy and make use of life, knowing its (usual) certainty of eventual end, its finitude, will come to an end sooner than we can usually be sure.

If cancer reduces one to sitting paralyzed in their room, then so will global warming, or Bush being President (... not that there's no connection, of course...), or racism, or the rudeness of strangers.

But, man, the strength a whole lot of people, in all sorts of bad situations, are forced to summon just to get through each day, the number of people for whom life just doesn't seem like very much fun feels frighteningly high.

Well, sure. Like, Eggers' book What Is the What. I'm better off than one of the Lost Boys (who didn't make it...). But even those who are suffering, even those who are in rough situations can have fun, can thrive, can be joyous.